A night, a cup, and a wand
by amaresu
Summary: The Web of Time is unraveling. Things that aren't suppose to happen are happening and things that are supposed to happen just don't. I'm supposed to be somewhere far away from here and yet here I am.


He finds her, or perhaps she finds him, in the ruins outside the Cardiff police station. They both duck behind the same pile of rubble as a Toclafane patrol goes by. She's dressed in white without a smudge of dirt on her and he can't help but stare at what should be an impossible sight. She looks painfully lost and so he takes her had and quietly leads her into the station. Once inside he pulls her back into the holding cell he's taken as his. There's a cot in the corner with a stack of paperback books on the floor next to it and a small gas powered hotplate against the opposite wall with caned food piled around it. It's not much but it's a place to stay and it's been safe so far.

She sits on the cot and watches him as he heats up a can of soup. She accepts the cup he offers her once it's done. They drink the soup in a silence they break only to share their names. He has to leave then, there is a rumor of fresh fruit and he wants to see if he can get some. She doesn't say anything as he leaves and when he gets back he's surprised to find her still there. She's curled into a ball on the cot, shivering a bit from the cold. He carefully crawls onto the cot behind her and pulls a blanket over both of them. She relaxes against his body and holding her he falls asleep.

He wakes up alone. After a brief moment of panic he sees her kneeling by the hotplate. She must have heard him wake up because she looks at him, "I can't seem to make this thing work."

With a laugh at his own foolishness he joins her by the plate and shows her how to work it. After they eat their breakfast she returns to sitting on the cot. Her back is to the wall and she's pulled a long crystal wand out of somewhere. She sits twirling it in her hands with an expression of terrible loss on her face. She smiles at him when she sees that he's watching. "I'm supposed to be on a quest. To find the Key to Time. I don't know what is going on here. This shouldn't be happening."

"Of course it shouldn't." There is anger in his voice when he replies, "None of this should have happened, but it did and we have to live with it."

"No." She says it with conviction, as if by saying that one word she could make the last six months disappear and have the world return to it's proper place. "This shouldn't have happened. It's never happened before. History doesn't say it should happen. There is something wrong with Time."

He can practically hear the capital letter on time as she says it. His confusion must have shown on his face because she continues, "The Web of Time is unraveling. Things that aren't suppose to happen are happening and things that are supposed to happen just don't. I'm supposed to be somewhere far away from here and yet here I am."

"Web of Time?" Nothing she's saying is making any sense.

"The shape and form of Time is disappearing. Nothing is staying constant." She looks somewhere between sick and frightened. "How does anything have any meaning when there's no way of knowing that it'll stay? Anything we do can be undone. The past and the future are becoming fluid. I can feel the threads unraveling."

"I'm not one for philosophy." It's all he can think to say.

She smiles at him then, "It's not philosophy. It's Temporal Theology. One of the first courses we all have to take at the Academy. I'm not sure I'll be here for much longer."

"What do you mean?" She may be insane, although something in the way she talks makes him think she might not be, but she is the only person he's had to talk to for more then ten minutes in weeks. She intrigues him and he doesn't want her to go.

"I'm not even sure I'm going to exist shortly." She looks at the wand in her hands and twirls it once more. "Maybe if I can find the pieces Time can be fixed. How am I supposed to find the pieces?"

He doesn't know why he offers but he does, "I could help you?"

Her laugh is bitter and filled with remorse. "No, you couldn't. I'm sorry Andy, but you wouldn't be able to help me even if I could make this thing work now. I'll stay until I have to leave though."

He doesn't know what she means by that, but he hasn't understood much of anything that she's talked about. She sips the soup he hands her and they fall to silence. She stays with him for three days. She still doesn't talk much, but she's more then willing to listen. When he doesn't talk, when silence fills the room, she gets the lost look on her face again and she'll spend hours just staring at the wand. So he talks to her. He tells her anything and everything that he can think of. He can't help but hope that if he talks long enough she'll stay.

He wakes up on the fourth day to her slipping out from under the covers. He grabs for her arm, she could be getting up for any number of reasons yet he knows that she is leaving. She sits back down beside him and smiles. She runs her hand along his face and bends down to give him a brief kiss. "I have to go now."

"No, you don't." He tries to pull her back down onto the cot. He wants to wrap his arms around her and listen to the soft beating of her strange double hearts.

She squeezes his hand, "I can feel time swirling around me. I don't know what's going to happen. Remember me Andy. Remember me if I stop existing." Before he can stop her she's off the cot and through the door. By the time he reaches the door as well she is gone. Vanishing just as quickly as she first arrived. The only proof he has that she was ever there is the wand sitting on the floor.


End file.
